Seventeen years ago today, at 10 P.M. Eastern time, the first episode of South Park aired, and life as we know it was never the same again. These days, there are dozens of envelope-pushing cartoons on basic cable, but at the time, South Park‘s willingness to be unrelentingly honest and vulgar was truly shocking. Let’s celebrate this glorious anniversary by looking at some of South Park‘s best secondary characters. Some characters on this list have larger roles than others. The only characters I excluded were Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and Butters, because he’s basically the fifth lead at this point. Now then – the 17 best secondary characters in South Park history.

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17. Ms. Choksondik
I remember watching the “4th Grade” episode when it originally aired when I was 10 (my parents were cool like that). I laughed harder at this character’s name than I had at anything else before in my life. I’m not sure I’ve laughed that hard since then, either. Admittedly, Ms. Choksondik didn’t have that much else going for her, but she hardly needed it.

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16. Mr. Slave
Mr. Slave could have just been a one-time character whose only purpose was to make Mr. Garrison even more outrageous, but luckily he stuck around. By the time he managed fit all of Paris Hilton into his rectum (that’s actually what happened), his place in South Park history was assured.

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15. Tweek
I could have put him higher on this list, but that is way too much pressure!

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14. Lemmiwinks
Sure, he was only in two episodes, but his adventures getting out of Mr. Slave’s ass, and doing battle with Wikileaks (who is also a gerbil) ensured that he would be in our hearts forever.

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13. Sergeant Yates
It took a long time for this character to earn the fans’ love — we couldn’t look past the fact that he wasn’t Officer Barbrady — but in time, he became one of the most consistently funny characters on the show. The episode where he enters into a prostitution sting and doesn’t reveal his identity until he’d already been married to his pimp for several years cracks me up every time.

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12. Butter’s Parents
Ok, I decided to exclude Butter’s from the list because while he’s not part of the main four characters, he is around a LOT, to the point where he’s basically a primary character. But his parents get consideration for all the hell they put poor Butters through. It’s not enough that they ground him all the time, there was also the time when Butters’ mom tried to kill him. Maybe that episode was non-canon, but it’s still there in all our nightmares!

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11-10. (tie) Clyde/Craig
Neither of these characters had the most personality, but they were always around when you needed them. Craig gets the edge because he had a little bit of a temper. Remember when he kept flipping Tweek off?!

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9. Big Gay Al
Big Gay Al may have only appeared in a few episodes, but he had a (Big Gay) impact! Plus, he was one of the funnier parts of South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. Who doesn’t know all the words to “I’m Super?”

Normally for me Chef would get the #1 spot just for his last episode (“I’m gonna make love to YOUR ASSHOLE, CHILDREN!!!) but if I had any reservations about Randy not being the funniest side character BEFORE the Halloween/The Shining episode (hint, he already was), then that episode did it. The opening shot of them driving up the mountain, with the shining score playing in the background already had me in stitches. I knew I was in for a great episode, and like always, SP didn’t disappoint.

I thought randy was a main character at this point just like butters, but if not, RANDY IS #1 on any list you shit for brains, chef was only mildy amusing, and the nothing good about him was when he died. that was an amazing episode.

I remember re-watching Bigger, Longer and Uncut not too long ago after watching it all the time during my teenage years. There’s a very quick moment in the intro where Stan’s singing, then he passes by Barbrady, who is slapping a criminal, then they both turn and wave at Stan. I’d never notice it before and it absolutely cracked me up.

Also, damn the hate train for not making Randy #1. I’m sorry, I thought this was America?

People saying Randy at #1 are forgetting the impact Chef had on the early seasons. One of my particular favorite Chef moments is after the volcano and Chef returns to think that the whole town is in blackface: “Okay, everybody, line up so I can whoop all your asses!”

Chef’s “death” was also so funny in how bitter it was of Matt and Trey. I love Randy, but I also haven’t watched regularly since probably Season 11, and I know they’ve used him a LOT more recently, but I can see why Chef has to be #1.

There’s a ton of other characters that could be here, Mr. Hankey, Kyle’s Parents, Kenny’s Parents, Cartman’s Mom, Pip, Stan’s Mom, Dougie, Grandpa Marvin, If we’re doing characters only in a few episodes the Adventure Tree friends are up there for me plus Sadaam, Jesus, Jimbo, Ike, Terrance and Phillip, Ned etc.

The one that absolutely you missed BIG TIME is Mr. Mackey, he’s probably in my top 5 tbh

Tweek was one of the worst characters ever put on this show. City Wok Guy is top 10 just for “City Airlines” alone, and whatever the handicap steroid dealer’s name was. He was the bomb in “Crippled Summer.”

Yeah now that I’ve had time to think about this, Lemmiwinks? Butters’ Parents? FUCKING CLYDE/CRAIG? Butters’s Creamy Goo was a better secondary character than any of those. The Asspen ski instructor was a better secondary character.

randy is number one for so many reasons. the water park episode when he gets pissed on by scientists, the boy band ep, food network star, the obama episode, jerking it in the hot tub with jerry… jesus man, whats wrong with you!?